A Core Memory is the memory and data storage system of the machine-like Aparoids. While it's quite possible that every individual Aparoid has a core memory, presumably only exceptionally strong Aparoids capable of warping through space contain information such as the location of the Aparoid Homeworld which is vital to an attack by the forces of the Lylat System. Since the core memory is, of course, housed within the body of the Aparoid, destroying or incapacitating the the creature can easily damage it, as was the case with the core memory recovered from a flying Aparoid on Fortuna.

History

The Star Fox Team first discovered a Core Memory after defeating the Aparoid on Fortuna, because Peppy urged Fox to collected it knowing that it could tell them more about the Aparoids. Once it was sent to the federation scientists on Corneria, the research director Beltino Toad assured that they were analysing everything from their current Core Memory but they could understand more if they had a complete, undamaged specimen.

Star Fox was then able to recover a complete specimen from an Aparoid which attacked the Katina outpost, but it was stolen by Pigma Dengar, who believed he could become rich from its sale. Beltino Toad then sent them a message explaining that the core memory Pigma stole might contain information relating to the Aparoid Homeworld, they then pursued Pigma and eventually tracked to the Meteo asteroid field, where he was defeated in a battle and presumably destroyed, and the core memory was recovered for research.

Just before Star Fox went to Sauria to save the dinosaurs from the Aparoid Invasion, Great Fox recived a message from General Pepper stating that the Core Memory had reached the research lab intact, and confirmed Beltino's theory that the memory core contained information relating to the Aparoid Homeworld as well as the Aparoid Queen. Presumably, Beltino and the federation scientists managed to discover the Aparoid weakness to Apoptosis and created the Self-destruct program afterwards.

Trivia

In real life, "magnetic core memory," sometimes simply called "core memory," is an early form of computer memory which stores information using the magnetic polarity of wires threaded through magnetic ceramic rings, called the "cores." Although the technology was outmoded by silicon chips in the 1970's, modern computer memory is sometimes still referred to as core memory.